CHAPTER XIV--A HIGHWAYMAN IN DISGUISE
The roads were so poor that it was impossible to reach Bordeaux thatevening, and Mr. Fabian said it would be better to stop at a small Innin a village, should they find a promising one. Consequently theydecided that the clean little inn at Agen would answer their needs thatnight.
The two cars were rolled under a shed at the back, and the guests wereshown to the low-ceiled chambers with primitive accommodations. But thesupper was good, and the host a jolly fat man.
While the tourists were finishing their coffee, a little bent man limpedinto the public room. He had great hoops of gold in his ears, and hiscostume was very picturesque. After he had been given a glass ofhome-made wine, he sat down in a corner and began playing softly on anaccordion.
He had a marvelous talent for this instrument, and the girls crowdedabout him, listening intently. Soon the host's grown daughter came outand danced a folk-dance, and then others danced the old-time Frenchdances. When the American girls were called upon to add their quota tothe evening's entertainment, they gladly complied.
Polly and Eleanor, Dodo and Nancy danced the modern steps so popularwith young folks of the present day, and the peasants, watching closely,laughed at what they considered awkward and ridiculous gambols. But thedancing suddenly ceased when a young man called upon the musician tohave his fortune told; he held out his palm and waited to hear hisfuture.
Fully two hours were spent in laughing at the "fortunes" the old gipsyman told--for he was one of the original Spanish gipsies, who hadwandered to the southern part of France and settled there for life.
The girls giggled and reviewed their fortunes that night long after theyhad retired. As they had to occupy the two massive beds in oneguest-room, it gave them the better opportunity to talk when they shouldhave been fast asleep.
Finally they were ready to sleep and Polly was about to snuff the candlebefore jumping into bed, when Nancy suddenly whispered: "S--sh!"
POLLY TIP-TOED TO THE WINDOW.]
The four sat up and strained their sense of hearing. "I heard a queernoise just outside our door," whispered Nancy.
"I'll tip-toe over and see who it is," whispered Polly, acting as shespoke.
"No--no! Don't open the door! That gipsy may be there," cried Nancy,fearfully.
But another scratching sound under the low window now drew all attentionto that place. Polly slowly tip-toed silently to the open window andtried to peer out. The trees and vines made the back of the gardenshadowy and she could not see if anyone were under the window, or tryingto get in somewhere else.
The other three girls now crept out of bed and joined Polly at thewindow. They waited silently, and were soon rewarded for their patience.They distinctly heard voices almost under their window, whisperingcarefully, so no one would be awakened.
"I think we ought to rouse Daddy, or Mr. Alexander," said Nancy,trembling with apprehension.
"You run and tell your father, while I get Pa out of bed," said Dodo,groping about for her negligee.
Meantime Polly and Eleanor watched so no one could get in at theirwindow, and the two other girls ran across the hall to their parents'rooms. In a short time both Mr. Fabian and Mr. Alexander came in andcrept over to the window where the girls had heard the burglarsplotting.
Mr. Fabian understood French so now he interpreted what he overheard:"Drop the bundle and I'll catch it. Don't make a noise, and be carefulnot to overlook anything valuable."
"Dear me! If they are burglars where is the one who is told to drop abundle? He must be inside, somewhere!" whispered Dodo, excitedly.
There followed a mumbling that no one could understand, and then asplash,--as if a bundle of soft stuff had dropped into water from aheight. Immediately after this, the voice from below excitedly spoke tothe companion above: "----It fell in the well! Now what is to be done?"
"Goody! Goody!" breathed Polly, eagerly, when she heard how the burglarshad defeated their own purpose.
But no sound came from the other burglar who was working indoors, andMr. Alexander had an idea which he suggested to Mr. Fabian.
"You go downstairs softly, while I scout around up here and locate theroom where the helper is working. When I give a whistle it means 'I'vegot the other feller under hand'--then you catch your man, red-handed,out in the garden, and the girls will rouse the house and we willpresent our prisoners to the host."
That sounded fine, so Mr. Alexander hurried to his room for his westerngun, and started out to hunt up the indoor worker. Mrs. Alexanderrealized that he was about to do something unusual, or he never wouldhave taken his big revolver.
"Ebeneezer, what is wrong? Are we in danger of being robbed?"
"I'm going to catch one before we can think if there is any danger, foranyone," said her husband, going for the door.
"Listen, Ebeneezer! Don't you go and risk your life for that! Youpromised to take care of me first! Let Mr. Fabian, or some of theFrenchmen here, try and catch the man!" cried Mrs. Alexander,hysterically, running after her spouse.
But the little man was spry and he was out of the door and down theentry before his wife reached the doorway. There was but one alternativefor her, and that was to go to the girls' room and pour her troublesforth into their ears.
But the four girls were too intent upon what was going on to sympathizewith Mrs. Alexander. Dodo merely said, in reply to her mother'scomplaints: "Get into my bed, Ma, and pull the covers over your head, ifyou're so frightened."
All this time, the man down in the garden was directing his associateabove, and at last the girls indistinctly saw someone slowly descend,what seemed to be a rope hanging close to the side of the house. Theyheld their breath and waited, for Mr. Fabian surely must have reachedthe garden by this time and would be ready to capture the escapingthieves, before they could get away.
But a loud shouting and a great confusion in the large public room drewtheir attention to the upper hall, where they could hear what was goingon below. Mrs. Fabian joined her friends in the entry at the head of thestairs and they heard the host shout:
"So! You look like a decent gentleman and you creep down here to take myliving from me! Shame, shame!"
Then to the horror of the girls, they heard Mr. Fabian remonstratevolubly and try to explain his reason for going about the place sostealthily.
Mrs. Fabian rushed down the stairs, regardless of her curl-papers andkimono, and the girls followed closely upon her heels. Only Mrs.Alexander remained upstairs under the bed-covers, thinking discretion tobe the better part of valor.
The host and some other guests were surrounding Mr. Fabian who tried toexplain that Mr. Alexander and he were following burglars who werelooting the place. The host smiled derisively, and told his guest toprove what he said was true.
Just then Mrs. Alexander screamed, and came pell-mell down the stairs."Oh, oh! A gipsy man came out of the _girls'_ room!"
Everyone ran upstairs to catch the trespasser, but he was not to befound. Then a scuffle, and confused shouts from the garden, reached theears of the crowd who stood wondering what next to do. A clear shrillwhistle echoed through the place, and Mr. Fabian turned impatiently.
"Now you've spoiled the arrest of those two burglars. I was to get theoutside man when that whistle sounded, to tell me that Mr. Alex had theinside man safely in hand."
But the shouting and whistling sounded more confused on the garden-sideof the house, so they all ran downstairs again, and went out to assistin any way they might.
Someone was hanging on to someone else who clung for dear life to athick vine that grew up the side wall and over the roof of the inn. Itwas this rope-like vine that the girls had mistaken for a rope of escapefor the thief. Mr. Alexander was in the garden, trying to drag down theescaping burglar, while that individual was trying to climb back intothe room whence he had recently come.
Just as the others rushed out into the dark garden to assist Mr.Alexander, another man appeared at the upper window and caught hold ofhis as
sociate's hands to pull him back to safety.
"Wait! I get my ladder!" shouted the host, running for the shed. But ahowl of rage, and French curses tumbling pell-mell from him told theothers that he had gone headlong into a new danger.
Mr. Fabian and the young man-waiter ran to help the poor inn-keeper, andto their amazement they found he had collided with Mrs. Alexander'sroadster which was standing behind the bushes, facing towards the road.
"I'll turn on the lights, in a moment, and see if all is right," quicklysaid Mr. Fabian, jumping up to start the engine.
Before he could switch on the lights, however, a general shout of dismaycame from the people assembled under the window, and the three men ranback to see what had happened.
The second-story windows were not more than eight feet above the gardenat the rear, as the ground sloped down gradually to the front of theInn. The first story was very low, too, so that anyone could climb up atthe rear without difficulty.
When Mr. Fabian and his two companions reached the scene under thewindows, they found three people rolling upon the ground in a tightclutch. The man from the inside of the room who had been finally pulledout and over the ledge; the man who had clung to the vine, for somereason or other, and the third man who had stood at the bottom of thevine and hung on to the climbing man's heels.
From this melee of three, Mr. Alexander's voice sounded clear andthreatening. A deep bass voice gurgled as if in extremity, but the thirdvoice was shrill and hysterical and sounded like a woman's.
Lights were hurried to the spot, and the three contestants wereseparated, then Mr. Alexander had the satisfaction of turning to theinn-keeper and saying: "I caught them both without help. I saved yourplace from being robbed."
But one of the two captured burglars sat down on the grass and began tosob loudly. The host seemed distracted for a moment, then tore off thebig soft hat the gypsy wore. Down came a tangle of hair, and hisdaughter turned a dirt-streaked face up at her furious father.
"What means this masquerading! And who is the accomplice?" shouted he.
"Oh, father," wailed the girl. "Pierre and I were married at the Fetelast week, but you would not admit him to the house and I never couldget away, so we said we would _run_ away together and start a homeelsewhere," confessed the frightened daughter.
Pierre stood by, trembling in fear of his father-in-law, but wheneveryone realized that poor Pierre was but trying to secure his bride'spersonal effects which she had tied in several bundles, they felt sorryfor the two.
It had been Pierre's idea to dress Jeanne in a gypsy's garb that no onecould recognize her when they escaped, and it was Jeanne who suggestedthat they use the roadster to carry all her effects, and then Pierrecould drive it back and leave it near the inn without the owner'sknowledge.
The father led his two prisoners to the public-room and the gueststrailed behind them, wondering at such an elaborate plan for escape whenthe two had been married a week and might have walked out quietlywithout disturbing others, at night.
In an open session of the parental court, the inn-keeper was induced toforgive the culprits and take the undesirable Pierre to his heart andhome. Then everyone smiled, and the waiter proposed that the host open abottle of his best old wine to celebrate the reception of the marriedpair.
"Why did you object to the young man? He looks like a good boy?" askedMr. Fabian, when the young pair were toasted and all had made merry overthe capture of the two.
"He has a farm four miles out, and I want a son who will run this innwhen I am too old. He dislikes this business and I dislike farming. Sothere you are!" explained the host.
"But you won't have to work the farm," argued Mr. Fabian. "You have theinn and many years of good health before you to enjoy it, and they havethe farm. I think the two will work together, very nicely, for you canget all your vegetables and eggs and butter from your daughter, muchcheaper than from strangers."
"Ah yes! I never thought of that!" murmured the inn-keeper, and a smileof satisfaction illumed his heavy face.
The next morning the young pair were in high favor with the father, andhe was telling his son-in-law about various things he must raise on hisfarm so that both families might save money.
Then the tourists drove away from Agen with the inn-keeper's blessingsringing in their ears, and after a long tiresome drive they came toBordeaux. Various places of interest were visited in this city, and thenext day they drove on again.
Brittany, with its wealth of old chateaux, was reached next, and timewas spent prodigally, that the girls might view the wonderful old placeswhere tourists were welcomed.